Disclaimer: I don't own Halloweentown.

Sequel to Absence.

"You're kidding me." Marie said incredulously staring at Luke. But who could blame her after the news that Luke had just laid on her.

"Marnie you know that me and my Dad don't exactly get along-"she interrupted.

"But you're going to school in the mortal world!" Marnie shouted. She had always just assumed that they would both be in Halloweentown.

"Well my Dad isn't paying for school and unlike you I didn't get a scholarship." he said his hands folded over his chest defensively. Today he was wearing a blue shirt that had a black boo written on it that clashed horribly with his flamboyant orange hair, along with jeans.

"Then work through school like I was planning to." Marnie insisted.

"Yeah except most people despite all the years since it's happened still see me as the wiener dude or the guy who was helping Kalabar. I've tried to get jobs here it never really works out."

"You never told me that." Marnie said softly. Luke rolled his eyes like it didn't matter but Marnie knew Luke good enough and knew that it still stung.

"Besides in the mortal world. I'll get a new start, no one will know what I did here."

"You mean how you helped me take down Kalabar and his son Kal." Marnie mentioned. Luke granted her a small smile. "You'd have to wear a mask all the time." Marnie said still trying to dissuade him.

"You had no problem with that when I was going to be part of your student exchange." Luke pointed out.

"Well that was because your were going to be with me." he looked at her with a knowing smile and she shrugged.

"Okay so I wanted to spend my freshman year at college with my best friend in the same town. Is that such a terrible thing?" he put his hand on shoulder.

"No" he said with a shake of his head "it's not."

"So where are you going?" Marnie said grudgingly accepting the fact that Luke wasn't going to be in Halloweentown like she had planned. She had already accepted the scholarship. Maybe she should have waited to accept it until after she had talked to Luke. Would it have made a difference? ..maybe...but probably not, she had wanted to go to Witch University ever since she had heard of it's existence.

She made her way onto his bed and laid down staring at the ceiling. Luke's room was always changing color, which was mostly her doing since if she did it no one had to paint it or pay money. Luke just showed her an example of the color he wanted for his room. Usually something from the forest that was near his woods, like a twig or a leaf. During the fall it always looked amazing, bright oranges and reds and yellows. Marnie realized that she wasn't going to see it this fall because he was going to be going to the mortal world.

After a moment the weight of the bed shifted and she knew without looking that Luke was also lying on his bed. She could feel his warmth and it made her calm down a little bit.

"Wisconsin." he said and it took Marnie a minute to backtrack the conversation and realized he was answering her question. Marnie screwed up her face in confusion.

"Wisconsin? You do know it's cold there, don't you?"

"Yes Marnie, I did do some research before decided to go there." Luke said sarcastically and Marnie shook her head and insisted.

"I didn't mean it like that." Luke sighed.

"I know, it's just this conversation isn't going the way I had planned."

"Me either." she admitted still looking at the ceiling it was easier to talk this way even though she knew Luke was right next to her if she didn't see his face.

"We'll write letters." Luke said hesitantly. Marnie shook her head.

"It won't be the same." She should feel strange with Luke in the same bed as her, if it were any other boy she would, but she didn't with Luke. She however brushed that thought away as soon as it came. Luke was her best friend and those kind of thoughts were dangerous.

"No it won't." he agreed with her. "We don't even get Halloween off." he said regretfully. Marnie nodded well accustomed to the fact that Halloween in the mortal world was considered fun, but frivolous. Halloween here was much more respected.

"However we do get Thanksgiving off. Why is a tradition about food more important than another holiday about food?" he asked sarcastically. Marnie had explained to him what Thanksgiving was, but in broad terms as well as what mortals thought about Halloween. She had focused more on the food than what the meaning behind it was supposed to be.

"Thanksgiving is supposed to be about family too. It's more a family holiday where you get together with distant relatives that you don't see any other time of the year, and no matter what you were fighting about yesterday it's suddenly shelved till the next day. Or at least it's supposed to be." Marnie said with a shrug, both she and her mother had a little bit of a hard time adhering to that unwritten rule they had in their house. Marnie turned to face Luke who was looking at the ceiling his expression blank. "This year it will be nice because we'll all be there including Sophie."

"That sounds nice." was all he said. Marnie frowned as she realized what Luke was going to be doing. He wasn't close to his father so it was unlikely he would be coming home for the holidays, and his only other choice was to stay at school and watch all of his classmates leave for Thanksgiving.

"You're coming to my house." she said immediately. Luke looked up at surprised.

"What? No I can't intrude, it sounds like a family thing." he said. She shook her head.

"You're still coming." she said again.

"Marnie-" he started but Marnie interrupted him.

"Luke you're my best friend, by now you are family." Luke opened his mouth again "You have no choice, you might as well just accept it." she said to him. He closed his mouth and grinned.

A/N: Thanks for reading please review and tell me what you think :)